Character Creation
The first thing each player needs to do is create a character to represent them in the game world. Each Hundredfold character begins as a blank slate with no skills, abilities, or upgrades, representing a generic person just on the cusp of adulthood. At the beginning of a new game, the GM chooses a starting level for all players who then build their own characters. Hundredfold character sheet (36.52 KB PDF) Alternatively, you can purchase a book of twenty character sheets from the official Hundredfold RPG Store on Cafepress. It is strongly recommended that you work things out on scrap paper before committing them to a character sheet. Identity You are free to choose the basic elements of your character's identity, such as name, age, height, weight, appearance, personality, mannerisms, personal history, sexuality, blood type, shoe size, going into as much or as little detail as you like. You're essentially creating a person, a key figure in the story you and your group are about to tell, so be creative. You may change your mind about certain cosmetic features when you learn what your character is actually capable of. A Combat score of 40.0 might not be appropriate for a thirteen-year-old girl. Then again depending on what sort of game you're playing, this could be frighteningly high or laughably low. It's important to work with your group to create a character you'll enjoy playing that has a place in the world. Experience and Levels Like most RPGs, Hundredfold employs an experience point system. Your characters' activities earn them experience, and certain XP totals earn them new levels which allow them to advance their abilities. The GM has final say on which actions earn experience and which ones don't, but as a general guideline, you should earn 1 XP for each successful, non-trivial task that is not pointless or overly repetitive. Hopping a fence to escape the police should probably be worth a point. Hopping a garbage can in your back yard with nobody watching probably shouldn't. GMs may also elect to award bonus XP for completing certain challenges, resolving major story arcs, or just pulling off something really cool. Each time you gain 100 XP you gain a new level. Your level is a direct measure of your power and influence on the world. A blank character is level 0. The average adult with a career and an education is around 5th level, which is the recommended starting point. A famous scientist or an Olympic athlete may be as high as 40th level. Superheroes and mythical characters can be well over 100th. At the start of a new game, the GM will choose a starting level for all players. You are free to begin play at whatever level you please, but understand that creating a high-level character from scratch, especially if you're new to Hundredfold, can be a little overwhelming. Upgrades Each time you gain a level, you gain four upgrades to spend on various elements of your character to improve his or her capabilities. You may only spend upgrades when creating your character or gaining a level, but you are not required to spend all of them as soon as you get them. You may save your unspent upgrades as many levels as you like, as this is often the only way to afford certain particularly powerful abilities. Skills: Virtually everything your character does is represented in his numerical skill scores, which start at 0.0 and are improved by spending upgrades. You are considered trained in a skill when you have spent at least one upgrade on it. There are three hierarchical tiers of skill in Hundredfold. These are attributes, general skills, and specific skills. Each specific skill belongs to a single general skill, which in turn belongs to a single attribute. Higher tier skills advance more slowly than lower ones, but benefit all of the skills within them. You may spend a maximum number of upgrades equal to your level on any one skill. Thus if you are 5th level, you can have no more than 5 upgrades in any one skill. You may, however, invest 5 upgrades each into a related attribute, general skill, and specific skill. Abilities: Your upgrades also allow you to purchase special abilities. An ability might grant a bonus or negate a penalty to a particular skill or task, open up new options for existing tasks, or even grant access to entirely new skills. Abilities often have requirements, such as a particular level or skill score or even other abilities which you must possess in order to learn or use the ability. Unlike skills, there is no upper limit on the number of abilities you may purchase, provided you meet each ability's requirements. Equipment: Rarely, a piece of equipment such as a magical sword or a powerful AI will allow you to spend upgrades on it to improve its abilities. Upgrading a piece of equipment is risky; if the item is lost or destroyed, those upgrades are essentially wasted and can only be recovered by retraining (see below). Retraining: In addition to gaining upgrades, each time you gain a level, you may also retrain one upgrade; pulling it out of one skill or ability and spending it on another. When you retrain an upgrade from an ability, you immediately lose access to it, as well as any abilities that have that one as a requirement. You may continue pulling upgrades out of an ability level by level until they are completely recovered (and reassigned), or replace the missing upgrades to regain access to the ability. If an ability specifies an object (a choice to which it applies), you may elect to change one object from one ability instead of reassigning an upgrade. Fantastic Creatures All creatures in Hundredfold are built according to these rules. With your GM's approval, you may be able to take one or more racial abilities. These abilities range from minor physiological difference like pointy ears or a keen sense of smell, to powerful supernatural abilities like shapeshifting and fiery breath. A list can be found in Category:Racial Abilities. Putting It All Together The following suggested sequence of steps will help you build your character and get it all down on your character sheet. There's no wrong way to make your Hundredfold character, provided the finished product obeys all the game rules and meets with your GM's approval. Each of these guidelines is elaborated upon in subsequent chapters. #The GM sets a starting level for all players. Note this on your character sheet. #Choose a name and general description for your character (height, weight, gender, hair and eye color, scars, etc.). Note these on the spaces provided on the right half of your character sheet. #Using scrap paper, assign upgrades to your skills. The simplest approach is to simply choose four skills from Category:Skills and assign the maximum number (your level) to each one. #Shop for abilities. You can skim Category:Abilities for things that seem interesting or useful. If you see one you like, and you can meet the requirements, you can then remove some upgrades from your skills to cover the cost of the ability. #Ask your GM about starting wealth and equipment pricing and choose items accordingly. #Once you've finalized your ability, skill, and equipment selections, you can calculate your total skill scores and get it all down on your character sheet. It is strongly recommended that you always add up your skill scores last to keep addition errors to a minimum. Category:Core Rules